dude the sun comes in about 93 million miles away.
this piece of ice will be closer than the sun?
son of a bitch, snow cones in the sky, here take
that lucy in the sky with diamonds.
Bill Withers just passed.
Great singer, lean on bro .
Plague... CHECK
Locust... CHECK
Floods... Ask Comet Atlas
I hope if the end comes it's instantaneous. No Apocalypse half measures please.
dude the sun comes in about 93 million miles away.
this piece of ice will be closer than the sun?
son of a bitch, snow cones in the sky, here take
that lucy in the sky with diamonds.
### - about 20% closer + about half the width of the sun! and 5 times
bigger than jupiter hah!
what that'll actually look like in the nightsky tho, i dunno...
knowing our luck chances are it'll just be yet another disappointing piece
of crap?
but otoh, this could be the one to remember!
fingers crossed huh ;)
Like other blockages of coronavirus, France has occurred in slow motion. >First, the museums closed. Then, about two weeks later, they closed cafes
and restaurants. And a week after that, the authorities blocked access to
the beach.
Today Nice looks like a dystopian science fiction film. The streets of
this seaside resort on the French Riviera are practically empty. There are >police checkpoints on every street corner and 8 p.m. curfew.
https://www.fr24news.com/a/2020/04/locking-in-france-provides-insight-into-what-could-happen-in-the-united-states-2.html
Across Europe, cities like Nice have virtually closed their doors to
contain the coronavirus. Their experiences offer a disappointing glimpse
of what could be happening in the United States as the virus continues to >spread.
French President Emmanuel Macron put his country under stress on March 16
the same day. President Trump first asked the Americans to practice social >distancing for 15 days (he has since extended these measures until April
30).
France is about two weeks ahead of the United States in the fight against
the virus. What’s going on here could happen to America next.
In a few days, the stores closed and the streets emptied. The US Embassy
in Paris sent me an urgent email advising me to leave as long as I can.
But returning to the United States would have taken several days, almost >certainly exposing us to the virus. And if we had returned home to
Arizona, we would have come into contact with relatives of the high-risk
age group.
My children and I are also curious and we saw an opportunity to see
history. Nice has not had a curfew like this since the Second World War. >Regular police checkpoints have not been seen here for years, perhaps not >since the 1940s. I wanted to see how it was going.
Police checkpoints and fines
The first days of the French coronavirus shutdown were tolerable. The >essential enterprises remained open, which included not only supermarkets
but also wine merchants, cheese factories and bakeries. (It’s France,
after all.) When the traders heard us speak English, they smiled slightly. >“Are you from America? They asked. “And are you still there?” “
Yes, still there. France takes the coronavirus seriously and we feel safe
in Nice, I tell them.
But then the rules for locking became more restrictive. On March 17,
French authorities banned residents from leaving their homes unless they
went to impossible work at home, bought groceries, went to the doctor or
at the pharmacy or exercise alone. If you are outside, you must carry a >signed affidavit indicating that you are absent from your home for a valid >reason or incur a fine of $ 40 to $ 150.
The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, was then tested positive for the >coronavirus. The next day, the police arrested me while I was trying to
walk along the Promenade des Anglais, the artery along the Mediterranean.
Go home, they ordered. Shortly after, they barricaded the crosswalks
leading to the promenade, leaving the beach empty.
A turn for the worse
Over the next week, as the lock tightened, the city’s mood darkened. Even >when I left the house for a valid reason, and with all the right papers, I >looked over my shoulder. Was my reason for going out valid enough? Would
the police sentence me this time?
As I walked towards the bakery, a man shouted through the window of an >apartment: “Go home! (Go home!) “
While I was at the bakery, I asked an employee how she was behaving.
“It is catastrophic,” she said. No need to translate that one.
There are long lines at the grocery store. the a social distance
requirement of two meters makes them even longer. Most buyers look
silently in front of them, their expressions hidden by masks. But their
eyes convey only one emotion: fear. They are afraid of getting sick,
afraid of what will follow.
My daily walk to the supermarket leads me to a pediatric hospital, where I >see young patients infected with a coronavirus brought to the door by
their parents.
Some parts of Nice seem completely abandoned. There are only a few
homeless people left. On the way to the grocery store, one of them
stumbled towards me, whispering in French too quickly for me to
understand. The next day, he was gone.
Early this morning I saw doctors carrying my neighbor in a waiting
ambulance. It was then that it struck me; the coronavirus is in this >building.
People have described life under control as a waking nightmare. In Nice, I >prefer a cinematographic analogy. After all, Cannes, the site of the
famous film festival, is only a half hour drive from the Mediterranean
coast. (Like many other major events, Cannes, which was scheduled for >mid-May, has been canceled. Organizers say they hope to have it before the >end of the year.)
So how can I say it? It’s like watching a low budget movie about the end
of the world, except that it never ends.
There are pockets of resistance, if not to the coronavirus, then to the >French authorities with their numerous rules. In front of a restaurant >selling take-out falafel, I saw a group of young men arguing in Arabic, >without social distancing. In Place Masséna, one or two residents
stubbornly sat on the park benches, taking advantage of the spring weather.
Every evening at 8 p.m., residents open their apartment windows and
applaud. They applaud for health workers to put their lives at risk to
fight the coronavirus. But they also applaud, praising themselves for
having survived another day in captivity. The pizzeria across the street >remains open after 8 p.m. and drivers continue to deliver food to hungry >residents. It turns out that you cannot impose a curfew on the delivery of >pizza in France. People would not accept it.
There may be a reason why the police seem to tolerate these little defiant >gestures. These are signs of a shared hope that the coronavirus will be >contained and that the lockout will end soon.
When people are released from their homes and the stores reopen, it >wouldn’t surprise me to see a celebration that will rival that this city >has never seen. And who knows, that day could fall on May 8, when Europe
will celebrate the end of the Second World War. In France, it’s called >Victory Day. There may not be a better way to describe the end of this
long lock.
### - just one more, similar tightening of that screw here in the uk, and >we'll be in a very similar situation to france with cops on every corner >stopping everyone that goes out?
you guys in the states being roughly only 3, 4 or 5 days behind us with
this increasing lockdown regime, can thus likely look forward then to
similar draconian rules being imposed upon ya's at some point too; all
civil liberties at that point effectively suspended! (so who'd have
thought we'd ever live to see summat like that in our lifetime eh? - a
global lockdown!)
making it all quite a bit different now compared to how things were innit!
very strange...
on another note: we gots a comet coming up this month that may or may not
be spectacular?
Ancient Comet ‘Atlas’ Measures Half the Size of the Sun and it’s Back!
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-science-space/comet-atlas-0013504
A huge icy space rock, comet ‘Atlas’, is currently in the constellation >Ursa Major in the northern sky passing through the orbit of Mars, but
it’s on a trajectory with our Sun and it will get progressively brighter
as it reaches its closest point at the end of May, if it doesn't fragment >that is.
The comet’s last Earth fly-by was sometime around 4000 BC when it was >witnessed by early ancient Egyptian farmers as well as Neolithic tribes in >Ireland, northern Scotland and across Scandinavia, but this most recent
pass was first spotted on December 28, 2019 by Asteroid Terrestrial-impact >Last Alert System ( ATLAS).
The comet’s atmosphere measures five times the physical size of Jupiter
and about half the size of the Sun and scientists say that by the end of >April the space rock will appear brighter than Venus in our night sky. As
it approaches our inner solar system, the comet will become one of the >brightest objects in the night sky and according to a report in the Daily >Mail “potentially the comet of a generation.”
According to a recent ABC News piece, Michael Jager from Austria - the >scientist who captured images of the comet Atlas or formally ‘Comet >C-2019-Y4 Atlas’, described it as a “brilliant suicidal comet that baffles >astronomers.” The exact size of the icy rock isn't known, but it’s likely >to be only a few miles across with a much larger atmosphere.
The gaseous cloud surrounding the comet has a diameter measuring about >447,387 miles (720,000 km), which is half the size of the Sun’s diameter
of 865,370 miles (1,392,678) and five times greater than Jupiter's
diameter of 86,881 miles (139,821 km). The Earth lags some way behind with
a 7,917-mile (12,741 km) diameter, but we need fear not as the comet poses
no danger to us as it will pass more than 72 million miles (116 million
km) away from our planet.
According to a report by SpaceWeatherArchive, the comet Atlas has a tail >about the same size as its atmosphere and “spews prodigious amounts of gas >and dust into space.” The last bright comet visible without a telescope in >the northern hemisphere was the 1997 passing of Hale-Bopp, which makes
this unexpected event a “rare” occurrence for astronomers, according to >the astronomy website.
The comet is presently orbiting Mars with a diameter twice the size of all >the other major planets in the solar system combined, and you can now see
it with binoculars, because it is already much brighter than astronomers >expected it to be at this point.
Daniel Brown, an astronomy expert at Nottingham Trent University, told
The Times that it's “definitely a promising comet that is pushing towards
a level that by the end of April could look really, really stunning.” The >astronomer explained that the distinctive green color seen around the
comet “comes from diatomic carbon - a molecule commonly found in comets >that emits a beautiful green glow when in gas form in the near-vacuum of >space.”
There is speculation among astronomers that Atlas might be related to the >Great Comet of 1844 as it follows a similar trajectory, and that both
Atlas and the “Great Comet” had both separated from a much larger comet >born in the early days of the solar system. The trajectory of the larger >comet would require a 6,000-year orbit around the Sun that would take it >beyond the outer edges of the solar system - “about 57 billion miles (92bn >km) from the Sun”, according to Dr. Brown.
Astronomers are the New Shamans
While there is no chance of Atlas smashing into Earth, this is sheer luck
for our planet to have been continuously bombarded with comets since the >Bronze Age , and this claim comes from NASA in a 1998 paper titled Earth, >Air, Fire, and Water: The Archaeology of Bronze Age Cosmic Catastrophes ,
by scientists at Harvard and the University of Hawaii.
The paper opens saying “Planetary scientists and astrophysicists have >recently begun to model the potential hazards on Earth from impact by >asteroids and comets and their models show 25 impacts in the past 5,000 >years, during which time occurred the major developments of human >civilization.”
With so many cultures having been affected by comet collisions, and maybe >civilization as we know it having been inspired by such events, it is
little wonder why when comets appeared in ancient skies Oracles, shamans
and holy men regarded them powerful prophetic symbols associated with >impending doom. It is only in the last century with the luxury of space >telescopes and astro-scientists that such fears have been dissolved in >society, until you get that dreaded email or text from the “Asteroid >Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System,” that is.
### - might be good eh? and be something different to talk about,
especially if it 'really' brightens up like they think it might? :)
Bill Withers just passed.
Great singer, lean on bro .
dude the sun comes in about 93 million miles away.
this piece of ice will be closer than the sun?
son of a bitch, snow cones in the sky, here take
that lucy in the sky with diamonds.
Bill Withers just passed.
Great singer, lean on bro .
### - snap! hehe ;)
Plague... CHECK
Locust... CHECK
Floods... Ask Comet Atlas
I hope if the end comes it's instantaneous. No Apocalypse half measures please.
Plague... CHECK
Locust... CHECK
Floods... Ask Comet Atlas
I hope if the end comes it's instantaneous. No Apocalypse half measures
please.
### - only get back to me with this if/when the total deaths from
coronavirus comes to precisely 144,000?
hah! ;)
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